


never be

by radiance



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: ALSO daddy ash, Gen, M/M, and work on the hemmings' farm, anywyas, not like /daddy/ ash but like literal father he got a lil kid, pretty much ot4 farm au, they all jsut love each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-28
Updated: 2014-07-28
Packaged: 2018-02-10 20:31:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2039103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/radiance/pseuds/radiance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>luke, calum, michael and ashton all work on the hemmings' farm during the summer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	never be

**Author's Note:**

> so i promised i'd write this for some people months ago and i kind of put it on hiatus until now.. but i always keep my word, even though sometimes it just takes a while. ANYWAYS enjoy

The morning dawned early on the Hemmings' farm, slowly rousing its inhabitants from their slumber. Or not so slowly, rather.

“Michael!” Michael wakes up with a start, blinking his eyes and trying to focus on the face looming in front of him. “Let's go, pretty boy, up and at 'em,” Calum says. He gives the still-groggy Michael a light slap on the cheek before heading back over to his side of the small bunkhouse.

Michael grunts in response, and before he knew it, was back asleep.

 

Inside the house, the Hemmings were already awake and moving, Luke a bit more sluggishly than the others, but moving nonetheless. Liz was already in the kitchen, kneading a slab of fresh bread dough while his father, Robert, sat at the table, sipping a cup of coffee. Luke's brothers were out of town camping, so it was just him and the boys for the weekend. Which was nice, but it meant more work, which kind of sucked.

“Go and get the boys together and bring them in for breakfast,” Liz tells Luke, who nods, still a bit sleepy himself, and shuffles outside, letting the door bang shut behind him – he didn't even acknowledge his mum scolding him for “letting that damned door bang shut, Luke Hemmings!”. He lets out a yawn and runs a hand through his hair as he makes his way out into the yard. The morning was still coming in, drops of dew on the grass and a slight chill that still, didn't really warrant anyone wearing anything warmer than a t-shirt. The sky still had traces of pink and orange in it from the sunrise and the moon hung quietly in the sky, watching the sun climb the horizon.

The bunkhouse where Calum and Michael slept was just outside, and the small cottage Ashton and his family rented was down more towards the driveway. A rooster crows and Luke mumbles a 'shut up' through his yawn as he comes up to the door of the bunkhouse. He knocks twice before entering out of habit more than anything else, and comes upon a familiar scene. Calum's tugging on a shirt, perched on the edge of his bed, and Michael's asleep still in his own.

 

“Morning, Cal,” Luke greets, giving Calum a smile, which he returns. Calum's hair was still mussed from sleep, and Luke wanted to just run his fingers through it.

“Early, innit?”

“You say that every morning,” Luke tells him, and Calum chuckles.

“Michael still hasn't gotten the hang of it, and he's been here for weeks. Lucky your parents are so nice or else his lazy ass would be out on the road,” Calum says loudly and deliberately, and Michael grunts in his sleep, making both boys laugh. Luke sighs before making his way over to Michael's bed and kneeling on the edge of it.

“Mikey, come on, get up,” Luke says, shaking his shoulder gently and looking down at his peaceful face. If Calum's hair was just 'sleep-mussed', Michael's was full on bedhead, platinum-dyed locks sticking this way and that as he slept on.

“You're too nice,” Calum tells him, sliding on his work boots before giving a stretch.

“Michael, my parents are making breakfast, get up you lazy ass,” Luke says loudly, and Michael's eyes flutter open, green meeting blue as he blinks sleepily.

“Breakfast?” he says hopefully, voice rough with sleep. Luke stands up.

“If there's any left by the time you get your butt in there,” Luke retorts with a huff. Michael gives him a grin and sits up finally, covers sliding off to reveal a still-pale torso. Calum snorts.

“Maybe if you actually helped work in the fields you'd get a little colour,” Calum teases. Michael frowns and turns his attention to Luke. 

“Don't let him be mean to me, I've just woke up,” he says, pouting. Luke raises an eyebrow.

“You tease me all the time!” 

“Out of love,” Michael defends. Luke 'mm-hmm's and heads out of the bunkhouse with Calum down the driveway to Ashton's cottage, leaving Michael back in the bunkhouse to get changed.

As they came to the door, Calum fixes Luke with a look. “Try not to wake the baby this time,” he says, giving Luke a grin. Luke frowns.

“It was -” Luke begins in protest, but drops his voice at Calum's raised eyebrow. “ - _an accident!_ ” he finishes in a quieter tone.

“You're awful clumsy,” Calum comments and Luke's frown deepens until Calum swings an arm around Luke's shoulders before knocking lightly on the front door. It creaks open a second later, revealing a rather awake looking Ashton who gives them a smile before slipping out and closing it quietly behind him.

 

“Mornin' boys, Mikey still asleep?” he asks, and the other two both nod, causing Ashton to shake his head fondly. The trio starts back towards the house, and chuckle a bit as they see a still half-asleep looking Michael make his way out of the bunkhouse. He catches up with them at the porch and they all head inside together, slipping off their shoes and coming into the kitchen, where the smell of bacon frying awaits them.

“My god, is this heaven?” Michael groans, inhaling deeply and making Liz chuckle. Robert looked up from his own food and gave the boys a smile as they sat down around the worn table.

“Ashton, hats off in the house,” Liz tells him, and Ashton looks sheepish as he took off the straw cowboy hat he had taken to wearing.

“Sorry, Liz,” he apologizes, giving her a grin.

“Finally someone tells him to take it off,” Michael drawls as he picked up a piece of toast. Liz gives him a light smack on the back of the head.

“Don't be rude,” Liz scolds and Michael gives her a charming smile. Liz just shakes her head.

 

“So, Ashton, how's Lilly doing?” Robert asks, as Liz set plates down in front of the four boys. Ashton grins.

“Good, actually, she slept right on through the night last night, so Emily and I are grateful,” he chuckles.

“They grow up fast,” Liz says, looking at Luke. Calum pinches Luke's cheek.

“He's still your little baby,” he coos, and Luke swats his hand away. The table dissolves into easy chatter as they pile their plates with fresh eggs and bacon, homemade toast and dairy right from the farm. The sun climbs a little higher in the sky as the rest of the world starts to wake up.

 

* * *

 

Liz and Robert had left the boys to clean up, heading out into the barn to feed the animals, but they all just sat at the table for a little while after finishing breakfast.

“We should see if Liz will let us go down to the lake today,” Michael says aloud and they all hum their agreement. Underneath the table, Calum rests his hand on Luke's thigh, his thumb stroking the outside of his jeans but Luke could still feel every millimetre they touched.

“That'd be good,” Calum agrees, “looks like it's going to be super hot today.”

“It's hot everyday,” Ashton adds, before standing up and taking his plate over to the sink. Michael follows him, bringing his own and Calum gives Luke's thigh a squeeze before taking his own plate. Luke instantly misses the warm weight of Calum's hand on him but doesn't show it, just grabs his plate and some of the other dishes on the table and joins them at the sink.

* * *

 

After everything was cleaned up, Luke took a moment to read the day's to-do list hung on the fridge. His eyes scan the tasks and he grins. He registers Ashton coming to stand beside him but doesn't turn to look at him.

“That's not bad at all, could definitely get down to the lake in the afternoon,” Ashton decided.

“And,” Luke starts, speaking louder, “If Michael actually helps it'll be done even faster,” he says, and waits for a moment... and isn't disappointed when Michael tells him him to shut up. Ashton ruffles Luke's hair and heads out of the room, leaving Luke scowling and trying to fix his hair.

 

The first thing to cross off the list is mowing the front lawn, which isn't too bad, so Luke decides that he'll start on that while the other three head out to the barn to clean out the animal stalls.

Luke strips out of his t-shirt and leaves it on the front steps of the house as he starts up the mower. The shirt would only just get sweaty... as well as Luke's got a tank top tan that he's trying to make not as glaringly obvious.

The mower rips to life and Luke heads off, pushing the mower in neat lines up and down the lawn.

 

Back behind the house, in the barn, the other three are mucking out the stalls. Michael flops down into a pile of hay as they walk in, and gives a hearty sigh. Calum kicks his foot as they pass him.

“Don't think you're getting out of this,” Calum threatens and Michael rolls his eyes but gets up anyways. Michael heads off to grab a wheelbarrow while Ashton leads the first horse out of it's stall and out to the pasture, clucking soothingly at it as they head outside. Calum chuckles.

 

“He thinks he's the proper horse whisperer, doesn't he?” Calum mutters and Michael snorts a laugh.

“If he's a horse whisperer than I'm the pussy whisperer,” Michael says offhandedly, and Calum blinks, before bursting out laughing.

“The pussy whisperer? Yeah? When was the last time you got anywhere near a pussy?” Calum taunts, eyes twinkling. Michael scowls and grumbles under his breath.

“We need some girls here on the farm,” Michael says, not answering Calum's earlier question.

 

“What's wrong with Liz?” Ashton says, coming back inside the barn. He raises an eyebrow. “And why haven't you started?” Calum and Michael both turn to face the older farmhand with sheepish looks on their faces.

Calum grabs a pitchfork while Michael manoeuvres the wheelbarrow in place.

“I'm talking about girls I could, you know, fuck,” Michael explains and Ashton snorts a laugh. He heads over to the next stall and starts leading the next horse out to the pasture.

“If we had any girls here you'd just be doing less work than you already do... I think it's better how it is,” Ashton tells them over his shoulder as he heads back outside. Calum looks up with a smirk.

“Plus Luke would get jealous,” he says and Michael's cheeks tinge pink. He doesn't answer, just rather grabs the other pitchfork and starts forking the old bedding out of the stall and into the wheelbarrow. Calum's starts up singing some random song loudly as he works, and when Ashton comes back in, he joins him, singing along.

 

* * *

 

Luke finishes up and wipes a hand across is forehead. It comes away damp, his body covered in sweat from the heat and the hard work and it's not even noon yet. He puts the mower away and escapes quickly inside for a moment to down a couple glasses of water. He licks his lips and runs a hand through his hair before heading back out into the heat. He makes his way out to the barn and as he gets close he can hear singing floating out towards him. He hears Calum try to hit a high note and his voice cracks and Michael starts laughing. He walks inside and sees them almost finished up, just one last stall to go.

 

“Look who decided to show up!” Michael crows, grinning. Ashton flashes him a smile as he's getting a horse re settled in their stall again.

“How's that lawn look?” Ashton asks.

“Like something out of a magazine I bet, Lukey boy here never does _anything_ but the best,” Calum says, adding a wink at the end of his sentence. Luke flushes, mind flashing back to summer nights out under the stars.

“Don't be so modest,” Ashton tells Calum sarcastically, shaking his head fondly. Calum just grins. Ashton leads the last horse out of the stall and Luke picks up a pitchfork and wheels a wheelbarrow over. He starts taking out the soiled bedding, calloused hands gripping the wooden handle of the fork. Michael comes over and sits on the stall divider and watches Luke work.

“The lake's gonna feel so good later,” Michael comments. Luke nods, already feeling his muscles start to burn in his biceps and shoulders.

“I think my parents are going into town for the night,” Luke says, flashing a look up to Michael before scooping the last forkful into the wheelbarrow. Michael raises an eyebrow.

“And I think Ashton said that Emily was taking Lilly over to her sisters house or something...” Luke continues and Michael's lips twist into a smirk.

“Boys night,” he says excitedly and Luke can't help but get excited too. He leans the pitchfork against the stall and heads over to the wheelbarrow.

 

“You wanna fill this back up?” Luke grunts as he lifts the wheelbarrow. Michael nods and pushes himself off the wall and lands lightly on his feet. Luke starts out to the manure pile, back and shoulder muscles tight as he keeps the barrow steady.

It doesn't help when Calum prods him in the butt with the handle of his pitchfork.

 

* * *

 

Luke watches from above as his Ashton backs up the tractor to below the second floor barn window. Robert chats idly to one of the workers from the neighbouring farm, whom they borrowed the tractor from. Ashton and Calum head over to the large wagon beside the barn and start pulling it up to the tractor. They've all opted out of shirts, the midday sun burning hot in the cloudless sky above making the heat just short of unbearable. Luke licks his lips as he watches the two of them work, golden muscled bodies working together to pull it into position. Ashton makes sure that it's properly hitched while Calum wipes his forehead.

“Stop creeping and help me,” Michael complains from behind him and cuffs him on the back of the head, and Luke blinks, forgotten they were supposed to be gathering up the hay bales up on the loft of the barn. Sheepishly, Luke goes and grabs one, grunts a bit as he lifts it, because the bales _are_ pretty heavy. He brings it back to the window and stacks it on top of the one that Michael had brought there previously.

Michael lifts a bale and Luke watches the muscles in his arm flex as he goes to pick up his own. Michael's definitely gotten more muscular in the time that he's worked on the farm, and Luke's gotten caught staring at him more than a few times, much to Michael's amusement.

As Luke drops the bale into place by the window, Calum calls up to him.

 

“We're ready down here!” and so Luke picks the bale back up, and promptly drops it out of the window. It hits the bottom of the wagon with a thud and Ashton scoots it to the back corner. Michael drops another out and Calum stacks it on top of the other one. It's hard, steady work but after over an hour (Michael wanted to take a break) they've got the wagon loaded up and ready to go.

 

Back when Luke and his brothers were young, his dad had strung up a rope swing from the rafters in the barn, so Luke and Michael swing down from the loft, landing down below in a stack of hay. Michael crashes down a second after him, and his arm whacks Luke in the stomach hard, winding him.

Luke swears at Michael as he tries to get his breath back and Michael just laughs and presses a kiss to Luke's abdomen, looking up at him through his lashes and asking, “Better?” which really just leaves Luke a bit more breathless than before. He let's Michael pull him to his feet and they head outside to see Robert driving the full wagon around to the other side of the barn.

 

“Liz said lunch is ready,” Calum tells them, and so the four of them make their way back to the house. They kick their shoes off outside and walk into the kitchen where Liz looks them up and down.

“Go wash up first,” Liz tells them, “you all stink,” she adds, wrinkling her nose. Luke frowns.

“We're just going to get sweaty again after lunch,” he protests and Liz looks thoughtful for a moment.

“Alright. You're going to have to eat outside then,” she says and the four boys look at each other and shrug.

“Sure,” Luke says. “After lunch can we go down to the lake?”

“Well, the chicken feed got delivered this morning so I need you to bring that around to the coop, but after that then of course,” Liz says and Luke beams at her.

The four quickly duck into the washroom to wash their hands, elbows knocking each other in the small space, but they finish up quickly and head into the kitchen. They make up their own sandwiches and grab some of the vegetables that Liz had cut up and head outside and sit on the back porch. Liz comes out a second later with four glasses of icy lemondade and Ashton beams.

“You're the best,” he tells her as he takes one. Liz shakes her head fondly at him.

“Robert and I are going to head into town in a little bit and there's food in the fridge for dinner,” Liz tells them and they all nod, mouths full with food. Liz pats Calum on the head and he smiles up at her before she heads back inside. Ashton turns to them with a grin.

 

“I've got some beer back at my place if you guys want some later,” Ashton offers and Calum and Michael high five.

“Sounds good,” Luke says, popping the rest of the sandwich into his mouth. They all chatter easily as they finish up their lunch, looking out over the fields. Ashton stands up, grabbing his plate and glass.

“I'm going to go check in with Emily, I'll meet you guys at the end of the driveway,” he says, before heading inside. Calum stretches his arms up and rolls his shoulders.

“Can't wait to get in the water,” he says, wincing as he cracks his back. Michael agrees.

“I know, man” he says, cracking his own back with a loud, sharp crack that has Luke staring at him in worry and confusion. Michael grins and pulls the snapped carrot sticks from behind his back and Luke rolls his eyes. He stands up and heads into the kitchen to clean and put away his own dishes, Michael and Calum following a second later. They finish up and head onto the last task of the day. They walk out to the end of the driveway armed with a wheelbarrow each to where the delivery man stacked the bags of chicken feed that morning. There's about twenty bags and you could fit two per wheelbarrow so it wasn't too bad.

Ashton jogs out to meet them as they're just loading up. Behind him, Emily's car pulls out and drives down the driveway. She gives them a wave as she pulls out on the road and heads into town. Ashton walks with them as they bring the first load of chicken feed to the coop, and he grabs his own wheelbarrow as they head back to pick up some more.

“So we could do a bonfire tonight,” Luke suggests.

“Sounds good,” Ashton agrees, “I'll put some beers in the fridge now so they're nice and cold for tonight.” They load another set of bags into the barrows and head back to the coop, talking aimlessly about everything. Calum looks down at his arms.

 

“I'm going to be so jacked when the summers over,” he comments and Luke snorts.

“You're already jacked,” he tells him and Calum grins. They finish up the rest of the feed bags with the sun still shining brightly in the sky and quickly go get changed into their swim trunks. Luke is ready first so he sits out on the porch and closes his eyes, enjoying the warmth and relaxing. He's startled out of his thoughts though, when Calum screams about an inch from Luke's face, causing him to almost fall out of his chair as he blinks. He's caught off guard for a moment as he takes in Calum's toned, golden body and messy hair. He swallows and glares up at the other boy, who grins innocently at him.

“I couldn't resist,” he defends and Luke sighs. He stands up and watches as Michael comes out of the bunkhouse. His trunks are slung low on his hips, the black contrasting to his paler skin as he slips a pair of dark sunglasses on over his face. Calum tugs at the hem of his bright yellow shorts and Luke tilts his head.

 

“Those are bright,” Luke comments and Calum's gaze flickers to Luke.

“You like them?”

Luke takes a moment to run his eyes down Calum's lean body and swallows. “Yeah, they look good,” he tells him just as Michael gets to the porch. Michael twists his towel and snaps it, whipping Calum in the ass and making him yelp.

 

“You ass,” Calum frowns, rubbing a hand over his butt. Michael smirks.

“You like it,” Michael retorts and Calum's about to respond when Ashton wanders up, towel slung around his broad shoulders.

“It's true, he does,” he says innocently enough, but Calum's cheeks flush. The air suddenly feels charged, so Luke hops down off of the porch.

 

 

“Let's get going, yeah?” he says, and starts off towards the woods at the edge of the property, and the trail leading down to the lake. The three follow behind him, Ashton catching up to him and walking beside him. He doesn't say much as they walk through the trees, Michael and Calum joking around about something behind them, just walks with him, occasionally letting his hand brush against Luke's.

The world opens up before them as they reach the end of the trail. There's a short, sandy beach with a dock leading out into the water that they had built years earlier. The sun burns mercilessly above them now that they're out of the cover of the trees. The water sparkles a brilliant blue before them and it's not long before they've all ditched their towels and shoes and are standing on the dock. Calum rushes past them and dives in with near perfect form, coming up a second later with a grin.

 

“Water's great, boys,” he crows, floating on his back. Ashton's next in, diving headfirst and swimming underwater for a bit before coming up for air. Michael looks at Luke, eyebrow raised and Luke _really_ should have seen it coming when Michael pushes him off the dock, following him in a second later. Luke comes up spluttering a bit, and shoves a wave of water at Michael when he surfaces, still grinning. Luke floats on his back a bit in the cool water as Calum and Ashton pull themselves up the ladder and back onto the dock. Michael makes his way over to where Luke is and is just tall enough to stand with his head above the water as Calum and Ashton trash talk each other's dives.

 

“Luke! Michael!” Calum calls, and Luke looks up, his body falling a bit in the water now that he wasn't laid flat. “Judge our dives,” Ashton tells them, and Luke nods, standing up. Michael comes and stands behind him, arms loosely around his waist and head on his shoulder. Calum and Ashton pay them no attention, and rather try to decide who'll go first. Calum finally gets ready to go, backing up and taking a running start before launching himself in headfirst. He breaks the water cleanly, but his knees bend and his feet hit the water and give a big splash as he goes under.

Calum surfaces and Ashton goes, not doing as big of a start before he goes. There's barely a splash as Ashton hits the water legs staying straight as he dives and he surfaces beside Calum. The two of them look at Luke and Michael expectantly.

“Ashton's was better,” Michael states and Ashton whoops triumphantly while Calum looks almost outraged.

“What?!” Ashton starts laughing while Calum pouts.

“Calum made a bigger splash,” Luke justifies, and Calum just spits water at them and goes underwater. Michael hugs Luke a little tighter.

 

 

* * *

 

The setting sun watches the four of them finish up their dinner, slowly falling towards the mountains. The heat has subsided a little, the sun perhaps having gotten tired of burning so hot, and so they eat outside on the porch again, talking about the bonfire they're having later.

“Ash, how's the beers?” Calum asks. Ashton smiles.

“Nice and cold, and there's enough to get us all drunk,” he says and they all grin. Michael raises an eyebrow at Luke, who flushes. He knows he gets a bit cuddly and touchy when he drinks... but it's not exactly a bad thing, really. He knows nobody _here_ has ever complained about it. Luke drops his gaze to his plate and takes a forkful of his food. Luke feels a bit disconnected from it all, lost in his own mind as the other boys all tell their own drunken night stories.

 

 

 

* * *

 

The night is warm even as the the moon takes its place in the sky. They're all just in shorts and hoodies as Ashton stokes the fire, building it hotter and brighter. The flames are hypnotizing to watch, and Luke gets lost staring at them. Beside him, Calum nudges his shoulder and Luke turns to look at him. He holds an acoustic guitar. Luke accepts it and sets his can of beer down. He thinks for a moment before his fingers start moving, plucking strings as he starts up a melody. It's a familiar one, and the other three recognize it after just seconds, and easy smiles light up their faces in the firelight.

 _I need your love to light up this house_ _  
_ _I wanna know what you're all about_ _  
_ _I wanna feel you feel you tonight_   
_I wanna tell you that it's alright_

Luke stops singing, looking around, and Calum takes up the next verse.

 _I need your love to guide me back home_  
_When I'm with you I'm never alone_  
_I need to feel you feel you tonight_  
_I need to tell you that it's alright_

They switch into the chorus and Michael and Ashton join in, and Luke looks up at the night sky as he plays. The farm is a while outside the city and so each star shines brightly, lighting up the sky and making it seem like someone's poked holes in the darkness to let the light behind shine through. The treetops seem to touch the mountains far in the distance behind them.

 _We'll never be as young as we are now_  
_It's time to leave this old black & white town_  
_Let's seize the day, let's run away_  
_Don't let the colours fade to grey._

They continue, trading off on the verses and coming together for the choruses until the melody fades out, silence broken only by the crackling of the fire. An ember floats out from the flames and Luke watches it until it burns out, disappearing in the air.

Luke's not sure when it happened, but Calum's arms are wrapped comfortably around his waist and Luke watches him for a moment as he takes a sip from his beer. When Calum notices him looking at him, he squeezes Luke's hip fleetingly and Luke smiles over at him. On the other side of the fire, Michael's giggling drunkenly into Ashton's shoulder, and Ashton's got fondness written all over his face.

Luke's not sure where they'll be when the summer is over, but he decides that he doesn't have to worry about that right then, when his boys are right with him, so he just cuddles up to Calum's side and watches the smoke from the fire curl into the night.  


 


End file.
